The Military Service Law: Who Is Covered
Many young men, and their parents, ask who would be covered if compulsory service came back. The answer in the texts published today starts with the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969. The office of lawyer Ali Barakat, in al-Yarmouk, Baghdad, sets out whom this law addresses, while noting that compulsory service is currently suspended.
Starting point: the suspension
Section 3 of CPA Order No. 2 of 2003 discharged every conscript and stopped compulsory military service with no date set for its return, leaving the decision to later Iraqi governments. No text reviving it has appeared in the Official Gazette since. Everything below describes whom the law addresses on its wording; it does not report a call-up in force today.
Males up to forty-five
Article 1(1) defines military service as the duties owed by every Iraqi male who has not passed forty-five. The law does not address women, nor anyone past that age, subject to articles 13 and 14 on reserve ages.
Invitee, conscript and enlisted man
The law separates terms that sound alike. The invitee is an Iraqi who has completed eighteen by the Gregorian calendar, and for the purposes of the law his birth is treated as falling on the first day of the first month of his birth year. The conscript is one who has completed nineteen and has been called up for compulsory service. The enlisted man is a conscript or volunteer actually taken into service. The volunteer is one who has taken up military service as a profession for a set period. An intake is all conscripts born in one year, and it may be split into batches.
When liability begins
Article 3 starts the age of liability on the first day of the first month of the year in which the Iraqi turns nineteen. A pupil who reaches the age set for his category in article 2 is enlisted with the first batch after his school year ends. In war and emergency the Council of Ministers may bring the age of liability forward to eighteen.
Age in the civil register
Article 4 takes civil register entries as the basis for conscripts' ages, but gives examination committees power to change an age where a person's appearance does not match the recorded year of birth. Only these committees may change the age of a male over eighteen, and court corrections carry no weight in that case, except after forty-five for someone never examined. Objecting to a change of birth year is covered in challenging recruitment office decisions.
Naturalised Iraqis
Article 60 subjects a person who acquires Iraqi nationality to the law from the date of naturalisation, unless he is over forty-five, and treats him as an invitee in the first call issued after that date. The position of those returning from abroad is in returnees and the service duty.
Who falls outside the circle
Not everyone within the definition must enlist. Article 6 excepts serving officers and military college students, article 7 exempts certain volunteers, and article 8 defers certain groups in peacetime. See exemption from military service and study deferment.
A text waiting for a law not yet passed
Article 5 of the Military Penal Code No. 19 of 2007 counts as a member of the military a person charged with flag service after the military service law is passed. That description therefore applies to nobody while such a law has not been passed. Proposals on the subject remain proposals until enacted and published.
Why this matters today
Despite the suspension, the law surfaces in practical files: service records of men who served before 2003, ages altered by an examination committee and still shown in the civil register, and exception or deferment papers requested in older retirement or employment files. Knowing whom the law addresses remains useful even without a call-up.
Legal basis and sources
- Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969 (Official Gazette No. 1728 of 13/5/1969) — Articles 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 60
- Coalition Provisional Authority Order No. 2 of 2003, Dissolution of Entities (Official Gazette No. 3977 of 17/6/2003)
- Military Penal Code No. 19 of 2007 (Official Gazette No. 4040 of 9/5/2007) — Article 5
Frequently asked questions
Does military service cover women?
No. The law defines military service as duties of Iraqi males up to forty-five.
At what age does liability begin?
On the first day of the first month of the year in which the Iraqi turns nineteen, and it may be brought forward to eighteen in war and emergency.
Does a court correction of my age change my service position?
After eighteen the law recognises age changes only by examination committees, unless the person is over forty-five and was never examined.
Related topics and articles
- 01Study Deferment from Military ServiceHow the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969 regulated student deferment: article 8, failing two years, postgraduate study up to thirty, studying abroad, the service booklet, and the annual review of deferred persons.
- 02Exemption from Military Service under the Statutory GroundsThe difference between exception, exemption and deferment in the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969: articles 6, 7, 8, 9 and 63, medical unfitness, the youngest son, the supporter, and the exemption document.
- 03Returnees and the Service DutyWhat the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969 said about travel and residence abroad: the travel bar between nineteen and forty-five, students and sick persons abroad, the fifteen-day window, naturalised Iraqis, and the effect of the suspension on returnees.
- 04Absence from Service: Legal Description and EffectsThe difference between failing to report under the Military Service Law and absence or desertion under the Military Penal Code No. 19 of 2007: periods, penalties, surrender, and the volunteer who leaves his unit.
- 05Reserve Service and RecallWho is a reservist under the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969, the grounds for recall and who decides them, the age at which reserve duty ends, exceptions, salary and job during recall, and the penalty for not reporting.